New Yorker Quotes Professor Chin on 1985 Book Used Against Birthright Citizenship

The New Yorker quoted Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin in its Nov. 14 story, “The Liberal Scholars Who Influenced Trump’s Attack on Birthright Citizenship.”

The story tracks the origins of “fringe arguments” the Trump administration has made to try to end birthright citizenship to “esoteric arguments” in 1985 book Citizenship Without Consent by Yale Law Professors Peter H. Schuck and Rogers M. Smith.

As the story notes, the scholars’ “esoteric work of political theory” actually argued for  more immigration. But their focus on the 14th Amendment’s phrasing “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has been weaponized by “hundreds of law review articles, op-eds, white nationalist listservs, congressional hearings, and bills,” the New Yorker points out, quoting an analysis by Chin.

Chin is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law and holder of the Edward L. Barrett Jr. Endowed Chair at UC Davis School of Law. He is a prolific and much-cited criminal and immigration law scholar whose work has addressed many of the most pressing social issues of our time.